Cowboy Mounted Shooting Association hosts championship

Amarillo rider Jade Pybus and her family will compete in the Cowboy Mounted Shooting Association World Championships beginning Wednesday.

Jade Pybus and her whole family are living out their cowboy dreams.

Pybus, her partner Jesse Miller, and her daughters Haley, 14, and Jackey, 9, will compete starting Wednesday at the Cowboy Mounted Shooting Association’s world championships in the Amarillo National Center.

Pybus, an Amarillo resident, attended the first championships held here in 2008 and was hooked from the start.

“You know, it was just so darn exciting with the gunfire and the horses,” Pybus said. “I grew up with this mythical idea of how great cowboys were, and I was convinced I was born in the wrong era.”

An avid shooter and gun collector in addition to being a horse trainer, Pybus was well positioned to take advantage of her attraction to the sport.

She and Miller started training a couple of months later and now have competed in four world championships in Amarillo.

“A lot of people think — and I fell into this category too — that because I shoot guns and I’m a (horse) trainer that it would come easy,” Pybus said. “But shooing at a stationary target from a fast-moving horse is a lot harder than shooting a moving target while standing still.

“It’s a training process, getting the horse used to gunfire as well as getting the horse to have an excellent handle so you can navigate the course and fire no matter what comes up.”

The mounted shooters shoot balloons with black-powder blanks that erupt in a ball of fire to pop the balloon but are perfectly safe for spectators, Pybus said.

Preliminary rounds run through Oct. 19, with the Showcase of Champions beginning at 7 p.m. Oct. 19. Additional rounds will take place through Oct. 20.